the two began training with each other, Clay knocked out Herb Siler in the fourth round (Tyers,15). Clay fought many successful bouts after that; he began to do what no boxer has ever done in the history of the sport: predicting the round in which he would win. Although he was knocked down a couple of times against Sonny Banks and Henry Cooper, the up-and-coming boxer was too quick and smart for any opponent. He even knocked out his former trainer Archie Moore in four rounds. Next up was Sonny Liston, the World Champ who was then the equivalent to Mike Tyson in the late '80s (Jet). Clay began to tease Liston, making fun of his looks and even predicting that he would demolish the champ in eight rounds. Very few believed that Clay had a chance; Liston thought nothing of the loudmouth youngster and trained for a quick two-round fight (Jet). Liston did not know that he was to face an opponent who was too fast and untouchable for him. After fighting a fierce puncher while being temporarily blinded in the fifth round, Clay would use his quick fists to annoy the champ so bad that he refused to come out of the corner for the seventh round. Clay shook up the world and became the new World Heavyweight Champion, but he would shake up the world again two days later after announcing that he had joined the Nation Of Islam, becoming Muhammad Ali (Jet). The year of '64 was a big year for Muhammad Ali; after becoming World Champ and changing his religion and name, he was quickly becoming the most identifiable and the most outspoken athlete in the world (Hauser, 20). Muhammad was seen a lot in public with the well-known leader Malcolm X, and many Americans wondered why a "good boy" would stoop so low. They continued to call him Cassius Clay and rooted for him to lose in upcoming matches, but Ali continued to be unstoppable in the ring. In the summer of that same year, Ali married the beautiful Sonji Roi, a cocktail waitress and model, but Sonji's conflic...
